High net worth clients are the Holy Grail for most financial advisors, and it would be hard to find people with more money than top sports stars and entertainers.

However, advising these clients can have its own pitfalls and complications, not least trying to get them to take an interest in their financial affairs, and keep appointments.

Patrick Connolly of UK wealth manager JS&P Towry Law, said: “They are often earning significant sums of money now, and there is no certainty of how long that will last. There are a number of key things we consider. The first thing we look at is that many people, before they get to us, are not making enough of the fact that they are being paid well now, and making plans for further on when that may not be the case.

“It is sometimes difficult to get their interest, and it can be difficult because they tend to break appointments. They may not be saving as much as they could be.”

There is, particularly with some sportsmen, a sense of immortality, said Christine Ross of SG Hambros Financial Services. This can make it harder to get them to address their financial needs before they head towards the end of their first career.

She added: “Some of them think ‘I’m earning great money, I’m going to be secure’. Or they look at the earnings they had before, and think that now it is Christmas all the time. The money keeps flowing in and people want to give them everything. Then we also start to see where their earnings start to decline. At that stage, there is often an unrealistic expectation of how their investments are going to perform.”

It can be disturbing, said Ms Ross, to see just how badly advised some sportsmen are. For example, Ms Ross is concerned about the number of people she sees who have used film partnerships to defer tax.

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High net worth clients are the Holy Grail for most financial advisors, and it would be hard to find people with more money than top sports stars and entertainers. However, advising these clients can have its own pitfalls and complications, not least trying to get them to take an interest in their financial affairs, and keep appointments. Patrick Connolly of UK wealth manager JS&P Towry Law, said: “They are often earning significant sums of money now, and there is no certainty of how long that will last. There are a number of key things we consider. The first thing we look at is that many people, before they get to us, are not making enough of the fact that they are being paid well now, and making plans for further on when that may not be the case. “It is sometimes difficult to get their interest, and it can be difficult because they tend to break appointments. They may not be saving as much as they could be.” There is, particularly with some sportsmen, a sense of immortality, said Christine Ross of SG Hambros Financial Services. This can make it harder to get them to address their financial needs before they head towards the end of their first career. She added: “Some of them think ‘I’m earning great money, I’m going to be secure’. Or they look at the earnings they had before, and think that now it is Christmas all the time. The money keeps flowing in and people want to give them everything. Then we also start to see where their earnings start to decline. At that stage, there is often an unrealistic expectation of how their investments are going to perform.” It can be disturbing, said Ms Ross, to see just how badly advised some sportsmen are. For example, Ms Ross is concerned about the number of people she sees who have used film partnerships to defer tax. She added: “They may be good for tax deferral, but they are deferring tax on high earnings, and they are liable to pay that tax when their earnings are likely to be very much lower. “Others will have been sold high regular savings schemes which have a very high commission, sometimes running into tens of thousands of pounds.” Now that the pension simplification rules are in place, it is no longer possible for sports stars to take their pension early, they have to wait until 50, or 55 by 2010, like the rest of us. Before the rules changed, footballers, for example, could take their pension at 35, said Ms Ross, while ballerinas could take their pension at 40. Given the way that the world has changed, there is “no reason to think that someone is washed up when they reach 35”, said Donna Bradshaw, of IFG Group. She added: “There is not really a need for them to take a pension then, unless they are spending serious money. Things have come a long way.” One of the key problems in advising sports people and entertainers is that advisors will often find they are dealing with the agent of the star, not the star directly. This can make life more difficult if, for example, you are trying to ensure a particular message is getting through to the person you are advising in the right way. Ms Bradshaw said: “There is an issue when you are dealing with agents rather than the individual, because you have got to find out things like their attitude to risk. You have to be very clear with the paperwork, and there is always the process of reconfirming details. Any letters have to be to the individual concerned, and they have to check it off and send it back. Some also have agents who act as signatories, so they have to have read the paperwork. “They also have a lot of other advisors dealing with their affairs, so you may find that you are just doing inheritance tax and pension planning. For money laundering checks, we have to receive the original documents, which is not a major problem. But it is the issues around doing the fact find which can be most problematic.” Adrian Jones of Coutts, said that he did not find it particularly difficult dealing with a raft of advisors around sportsmen, particularly young footballers, but that when it came to making investment decisions he would prefer to deal with the client directly. He added: “We want to ensure that the client understands the consequences of earning a lot of money in a short time, and the disciplines involved in making that last.” It is also vital to be flexible, said Ms Ross, as sportsmen and entertainers will not necessarily work to what we traditionally think of as office hours. For example, a footballer may be most keen to speak to you on a Sunday, after the match on the Saturday, and the advisor may have to accommodate that if they want to deal with these clients. When it comes to the differences in the advice they need, it is not that far removed from other wealthy clients, said Ms Bradshaw. She added: “What is important to a lot of these people is passing wealth down through the generations, and you may have issues with foreign income and foreign pensions.” If a client does have a foreign pension, it is not counted within the lifetime limit for UK pensions, said Ms Bradshaw, which may be a benefit to those, such as golfers or tennis players, who may spend a lot of time out of the UK. Mr Jones added: “If you are dealing with a golfer or tennis player who is regularly on tour, their tax situation will be different to a UK born, UK-resident footballer who spends the majority of the year in this country.” While Coutts does not specialise in this sort of tax advice, said Mr Jones, it works with outside partners who can offer its clients the expertise they need. Guy Trezona, managing director of Passion, a private client advisory firm specialising in the financial care of sportspeople and teams, said: "It tends to be quite sophisticated how these individuals are looked after. The problems I have seen from the buy side is that banks are very good at selling their own products but they are not good at dealing with their own services. The notable exceptions for these sorts of clients are HSBC, UBS, Coutts and ABN Amro. They all have people who can see what it is like to be involved with sportsmen and women because they employ them. "I concentrate on the client, and the only way you can do that is to build trust. You must spend the time to develop gently the trust, and once you have that trust you will deal with the client and their families directly. You have to be accepted, and once you are you will be introduced to other people in the same environment."

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